Oh, and while I’m at it, can we briefly talk about the Mac mini’s internal speaker? Apple’s audio department pulls off some incredible wizardry with its small speaker systems they always sound far bigger than they should. A front-loading slot like the one on the Mac Studio would have called for champagne, but for it not to have been added to the rear of this creatively inspiring computer is daft. I’m also very disappointed we didn’t see the return of the SD card slot on the M2 Pro Mac mini. The standard M2 Mac mini fared even worse – posting an export time that was four seconds slower than the M1 version.Īlthough imperceptible to many users, that really isn’t the point – Apple has downgraded the base models of the M2 generation Mac mini and I’m now firmly on the side of those who believe this is rather naughty. I’d expect far more given the increased price and spec of the M2 Pro chip. This was illustrated during my Final Cut Pro test, where the M2 Pro Mac mini completed an export in 4:44 – gaining only 15 seconds on its non-Pro M1 predecessor. If you’re unaware, Apple has changed the configuration of its base storage chips which has resulted in slower read and write performance than the M1 generation. The SSD debacle is now totally unavoidable. It isn’t all roses in M2 Pro Mac mini land, I’m afraid. The M2 Pro Mac mini is seriously making me question whether or not it’s worth maxing out my next MacBook Pro purchase come the release of the M3 series chips. I didn’t realise quite how useful they would be, but the ability to connect all of my external devices and a Satechi hub at the same time is a wonderful thing. I also love the abundance of Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back. More importantly, it feels almost identical to edit on – I’ve received a couple more dropped frame messages than usual, but beyond that, I can fly through a 4K edit at exactly the same speed. During my rough benchmark tests, this base model machine with a 16-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD beat my £3,700 M1 Max MacBook Pro in a Final Cut Pro render test. The multi-core performance of the M2 Pro Mac mini is what’s truly astounding, though. If you’re doing normal computery stuff, this thing absolutely smokes every competing headless desktop on the market. It is buttery smooth off the bat and will remain so for far longer than the Intel Macs of old. The single-core performance of these Apple silicon machines is now a given. The M2 Pro Mac mini simply steps things up several gears. It’s also priced very keenly and still represents the most cost-effective route into the macOS ecosystem. It’s still this tiny, innocuous little computer which is weirdly handsome and surprisingly powerful. What I loveįirstly, I still love everything about the Mac mini that has always made it so special. However, new Bluetooth tech and, one would assume, slightly reworked gubbins inside that little box may well have resolved the problem. This doesn’t mean it’s fixed, and I can’t guarantee that you’ll find yourself similarly undisturbed by Bluetooth problems if you buy one – the chassis is identical to the M1 version, after all. I’m happy to report that I haven’t experienced any Bluetooth issues so far on the M2 Pro Mac mini. Certain peripherals – including Apple’s own – would also randomly lose connection or refuse to play ball entirely.įor many people – including, almost, yours truly – it was a dealbreaker. It reached the point where I couldn’t wear Bluetooth headphones anywhere near the Mac mini due to weird dropouts and glitches. I experienced it most consistently in my old home studio. They didn’t appear to impact everyone, but they were prolific enough to cause a right ol’ stir among my audience. If you weren’t aware, the M1 Mac mini suffered from awful Bluetooth issues. Does the M2 Mac mini have Bluetooth problems? Today, I’m going to give you my latest thoughts on the M2 Pro Mac mini – starting with the question everyone appears to be asking. I had originally promised myself that I wouldn’t fill it with so many distractions due to it being purely a production machine, but that didn’t last long. Even Slack has made its way onto the M2 Pro Mac mini. I also found myself installing every app I rely on daily, from Fantastical to TickTick. It’ll play the central role in my much-talked-about-but-yet-to-materialise music production studio project. But there’s lots more in store for my M2 Pro Mac mini. It has, therefore, already put in a request to become my main editing workstation while at the studio. I’ve edited the last two videos for my YouTube channel on that computer. The latter will, as I promised last year, feature in some kind of giveaway relatively soon (once my diary is a little clearer) but its replacement is already making its presence felt. At the moment, it resides on the desk that used to house my beloved M1 Mac mini. I’ve got so much planned for this little desktop powerhouse.
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